AFGHANISTAN: NATO IS NOW US-ATO
Index Research
The pre-planned war in Afghanistan will be 5 years old on 7 October. The PNAC gang had their eyes on Afghanistan and its oil prior to 9/11, as seen in R. M. Gerecht’s (March ’01) NY Times article, reprinted on the PNAC website. “In 1996, it seemed possible that American-built gas and oil pipelines from Central Asia could run through an Afghanistan ruled by one leader. … .To really put Mr. bin Laden out of business, America must shut down his operations inside Afghanistan,” he said. Mr. Gerecht wrote a further PNAC document, The Cowering Superpower, on the 30th of July ’01, in which he said: “In December 1999, the Clinton administration issued a worldwide terrorist alert … (because) bomb-toting Islamist militants under the banner of the Saudi terrorist Usama bin Laden had declared war.” Following this comment is a discussion on Bin Laden. Another excellent analysis of pre-9/11 strategy is by Stephen Lendman in his article Afghanistan, The Other Lost War. Further post 9/11 PNAC documents relating to Afghanistan can be seen here. Earlier documents relating to oil and gas in Afghanistan can be read here.
Really, the ‘War on Terror’ would be better renamed as ‘The War for GO’ (gas and oil). This is as applicable to Afghanistan as it is to Iraq, and threatened Iran.
The UN Security Council issued Resolution 1333 on December 19, 2000. This demanded “that the Taliban turn over bin Laden to the United States or a third country for trial in the deadly bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa in August 1998, and close terrorist training camps, with the threat of trade sanctions, freezing Taliban assets abroad, etc.” This resolution did not authorize the use of force. The rapid military response, “Enduring Freedom” (sic) following 9/11 was not authorised by the UN until Resolution 1386 was passed on 20.12.01. The U.S. war in Afghanistan thus began illegally and remained illegal for 2 months and 13 days.
“Within a number of days,” the U.S. dropped cluster bombs and, later, thermobaric bunker busters which “violate international norms on indiscriminate attacks.” Verifiable disclosure by the U.S. government on the use of Depleted Uranium, i.e. bombs which use reprocessed nuclear waste, should be demanded by the U.S. Senate and Congress.
The Secretary General, Jaap de Hoop, said (29 Nov. 2005) that NATO “troops will be independent from existing US forces and would respect human rights.” There were many concerns and a definite quagmire . John Reid, The former U.K. Defence Minister, said (April ’06) that U.K. forces would be happy to leave Afghanistan in three years without "firing one shot.” Reality has proved this to be an understatement. Recently, the Scotsman reported that British troops were being attacked “up to a dozen times a day, were involved in hand-to-hand combat and had fired 400,000 bullets.” The UK time limit has also become more flexible - 10 years is suggested. The leader of the Liberal Democrats in the United Kingdom, Sir Menzies Campbell, recently wrote that the UK Afghan ‘mission’ does “not absolve our Government from one of its most profound responsibilities: scrupulous consideration of the justification and consequences of deploying British troops to battle.”
The war in Afghanistan is now supported by NATO troops supplied by 37 countries. There are 20,000 US troops, of which 8,000 will operate at two centres under U.S. control. There are 76,000 Afghan security forces. NATO command will be headed by Lt. Gen. David Richards of the U.K. The schism between the U.S. and NATO supporting countries still exists and is unresolved. Was 'independence' ever really an option? One might take notice of an 'offer’ made by the US in June 2006 to take command of NATO troops.
Who is heading the U.S. ‘mission’? In July, suspect war criminal General Bantz Craddock was chosen as NATO’s next ‘supreme’ European allied commander. His previous job was at Guantanamo. "Craddock falsely insisted that a ‘significant number’ of detainees at Guantanamo Bay were members of al-Qaeda; … Craddock refused to reprimand Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller for abuse and torture of detainee Mohammad al-Qahtan; … Craddock joked about the detainee hunger strike, saying the prisoners had ‘choices’ in feeding tube color, flavor of lozenges.” Prior to Guantanamo, he was a chief military assistant to Rumsfeld.
On the 26th of September, a Guardian headline announced: U.S. Gen. to Command Afghanistan Forces. McNeil is another suspect war criminal. He presided over Bagram Prison, an infamous torture centre in Afghanistan, in 2003. It is interesting that one of the two enclaves (the other is Kandahar helicopter airbase) that will remain under direct U.S. control is the U.S.-operated prisons and interrogation centers at Bagram.
President Bush recently pushed through the Military Commissions Act. This authorized the President “to use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001 . . . in order to prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States by such nations, organizations or persons.” This retroactive bill was designed to protect men such as Craddock and McNeil from being charged as war criminals. No one in Mainstream Media has reported the US leadership connection in Afghanistan with torture.
Violence and death, as in Iraq, continue to increase in Afghanistan not only for NATO troops but also exponentially for the Afghan people. Boston’s Globe and Mail suggested that “NATO's emphasis on body counts as a measure of military success echoes an earlier era, when the U.S. used them as a measure of success against ‘insurgents’ in Vietnam.”
Why do both the US and UK governments shrug off the National Intelligence Estimate Report, as well as other reports? Why are Bush and Blair ‘in denial’ over accusations that their foreign policies are responsible for the growth in terrorism? The revenge motif, get Bin Laden ‘dead or alive’ following 9/11 has not been achieved. One has to now ask if this is intentional, given that he is the Fear Focus for Bush’s (poorly thought out and abysmally executed) “War on Terror.” Terrible as it sounds, could one propose that 'terrorist' growth is exactly what the US / UK governments want to encourage? Via bogus ‘terrorist’ threats and the ensuing Fear Factor, these two governments can ensure that the ‘Patriot’ Act, ID cards, private prisons, draconian attacks on human rights, torture methods, wiretaps, etc. ad. vomitus, can be implemented in order to achieve the desired police state. The governmental mind-set means that the lives of ‘ordinary’ human beings can be considered as contemptible whilst corporate / private fortunes in oil and the arms trade are being made. Not exactly “democracy and freedom.”
And why is the U.S. encouraging more and more countries to join NATO? This is not for the benefit of Afghanistan. NATO is another U.S. corporate money-spinner. The financial squeeze which the U.S. puts on ‘cooperating’ NATO countries in Afghanistan is for the sole benefit of the US arms industry. An extensive essay on the USA involvement with NATO can be seen at Nato, the Bathtub of Unreadiness. NATO should be renamed US-ATO.
Index on Afghanistan, which I started in May 2005, and was my first blog, is now an enormous source reference. More people are re-focusing on this ‘forgotten’ war. In the future, there will be separate monthly updates. The September 2006 Index on Afghanistan can be seen here. I hope that people all over the world will continue to find these source references useful. Thank you.
Sarah Meyer is a researcher living in the United Kingdom.
"Afghanistan: Nato is now US-ato" was first published by the BRussells Tribunal at
http://www.brusselstribunal.org/resources.htm
The url to Afghanistan: NATO is now US-ATO is
http://indexresearch.blogspot.com/2006/10/afghaistan-nato-is-now-us-ato.html
GENERAL LINKS and RESOURCES
United Nations
Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI)
UNMOVIC homepage (launched Jan 30, 2001)
A welcome addition. Provides links to UNMOVIC reports, organizational
chart, documents and a chronology.
Updated collection of UN Security Council Resolutions on Iraq.
Security Council Resolution 1284 replaced UNSCOM with UNMOVIC and set (somewhat vague) conditions for the lifting of sanctions, notably the return of weapons inspections. See also the relevant press release.
United Nations
Office of the Iraq Programme
UN department overseeing implementation of the Iraq oil-for-food
programme. Provides full text of the Secretary General's reports,
Security Council resolutions and weekly updates on the working of the
oil-for-food programme.
Basic Facts About the Oil for Food Program
Provides basic information about the Oil-for-Food Program in Iraq.
UNSCOM Home
Page
The old UN weapons inspection program's page, including facts, documents
and reports about UNSCOM's operations.
Memorandum of Understanding between the UN and the Republic of Iraq (February
23, 1998)
International
Compact for Iraq
This link provides information on the International Compact for Iraq, an
initiative created by the United Nations at the request of the Iraq
government. The compact aims to achieve a National Vision for Iraq by
consolidating peace and pursuing political, economic and social
development over the next five years.
Iraq Analysis
Group
This site provides information about post-invasion Iraq. This includes a
list of opinion polls carried out in Iraq, links to documents about the
humanitarian situation, a collection of good sources of news about Iraq,
and much else.
Iraq Index
This document contains a comprehensive list of post-war Iraq-related
statistics, compiled by the Brookings Institution.
US Embassy
Baghdad, Iraq Homepage
A link to the official homepage of the US Embassy in Iraq, established
on June 28, 2004 following the "transfer of sovereignty" to Iraq's
Interim Government.
Coalition Provisional
Authority Homepage
A link to the official homepage of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA)
of Iraq, the first Occupying Power in history to have its own website.
Development Fund for Iraq
Official website with information regarding the Development Fund for
Iraq (DFI) account balance and spending.
United Nations Homepage on Iraq
The official United Nations website dedicated to Iraq with UN news,
documents and related information dealing exclusively with the Iraq
Crisis.
International Advisory
and Monitoring Board
The official website of the International Advisory and Monitoring Board
(IAMB). IAMB is an auditing oversight body created to monitor collection
and disbursement of funds from the Development Fund for Iraq.
Iraq Revenue
Watch
This site, run by the Open Society Institute, provides articles
on Iraq's oil industry in the post-war era. It promotes transparency in
the management of Iraq's oil industry to ensure that the benefits of the
country's national oil wealth flow to the people of Iraq.
Middle East Reference
This website lists numerous political “organizations” in Iraq including
civilian-based national secular groups, National Islamist groups,
national officers' organizations, Kurdish groupings and other
organizations based on ethnic identity. The site also lists noteworthy
independent political figures in Iraq.
The National
Security Archive
This website offers a library and archive of declassified U.S. documents
obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, a public interest law
firm defending and expanding public access to government information
through the FOIA, and an indexer and publisher of documents in books,
microfiche, and electronic formats.
Baghdad
Bulletin
This self-described ‘non-partisan publication” based in Baghdad brings a
plethora of articles and information on Iraq after Saddam Hussein's rule.
War in Iraq
This Russian-based site, said to be close to the Defense Ministry,
provides articles and analysis about all aspects of the Iraq War in
English and Russian. The site offers often original and critical
analyses of the US occupation.
Cost of War
This website offers a cost of war counter giving up-to-the-minute
information on the immense cost of war and occupation in Iraq.
Iraq Occupation
Watch
This Baghdad-based International Occupation Watch Center act as a
watchdog regarding the military occupation and US-appointed government
and monitors the role of foreign companies in Iraq.
Iraq Body Count
This website is a human security project establishing an independent and
comprehensive public database of media-reported civilian deaths in Iraq
resulting directly from military action by the US and coalition forces.
Cryptome
This website chronicles US military deaths in Iraq from March 2003 to
present including the names of the dead soldiers and how they died.
Iraq
Coalition Casualty Count
This website chronicles military casualties and fatalities in Iraq from
March 2003 to present. It provides casualty information for the US, the
UK, and all other coalition members.
US
Energy Information Administration: Iraq Oil Page
The Energy Information Administration (EIA), created by US Congress in
1977, is a statistical agency of the US Department of Energy. EIA
provides policy-independent data, forecasts, and analyses on various
oil-producing countries, including
general information
and Non-OPEC
countries.
Petropolitics
Link to a web site with information on the connection between US oil
interests and war in Iraq.
OPEC
OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) is an
international Organization of eleven developing countries which are
heavily reliant on oil revenues as their main source of income. The
current Members are Algeria, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya,
Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Venezuela.
Oil and Gas
Journal Online
This online journal gives you the latest news on oil business.
Platts
Platts provides information and services in the fields of electricity,
natural gas, oil, oil shipping, coal, nuclear energy and petrochemicals.
Oil News
News on international oil business and politics.
Monitoring International Humanitarian Law in Iraq
The IHL Research Initiative portal offers unique access to academic and policy-oriented research material related to International Humanitarian Law. The portal has been developed in close cooperation between the Integrated Research and Information System (IRIS) and the Harvard Program on Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research (HPCR)."
Emergency Humanitarian Action for the People of Iraq
This link lists humanitarian organizations working for people in Iraq or
Iraqi refugees.
Reports on the Iraq Crisis
Information from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian
Affairs (OCHA) on the crisis in Iraq.
Humanitarian Issues and ICRC Action in Iraq
Link to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) web site
which provides news and background on the humanitarian issue in Iraq.
Human
Rights Watch Report on Iraq
Human Rights Watch provides up-to-date information on the current
humanitarian situation in Iraq and background to the war.
Iraq Body Count
This website is a human security project establishing an independent and
comprehensive public database of media-reported civilian deaths in Iraq
resulting directly from military action by the US and coalition forces.
IRC’s Emergency
Assistance For Iraqis
Reports and analysis on the humanitarian situation in Iraq provided by
the International Rescue Committee (IRC).
Relief Web on the Latest in Iraq
The link to Relief Web’s site including reports and statistical
information on the humanitarian situation in Iraq.
CNS Special Report on Iraq
Link to the Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS) providing
materials on the Iraq crisis including commentaries and articles from
the “The Nonproliferation Review.”
The
American Enterprise Institute
AEI is a conservative Washington-based think-tank that has close ties to
Wall Street and corporate boardrooms. Richard Perle, one of the
administration’s most avid hawks, works at AEI, and the Institute has
favored a US military strike against Iraq and against “Middle Eastern
Tyranny.”
Campaign
Against Sanctions in Iraq
First known as “Campaign Against Sanctions in Iraq”, CASI aimed to raise
awareness of the effects of sanctions on Iraq, and campaigns on
humanitarian grounds for the lifting of non-military sanctions. After
the outbreak of war in 2003, CASI members officially transformed it into
"Cambridge in Solidarity with Iraq" in autumn 2003, and wound down in
Spring 2005. The original CASI website remains an extensive collection
of resources and information.
The
Cato Institute
The Cato Institute is Washington’s leading neoliberal policy center and
the least hawkish of the conservative think-tanks. Skeptical of “foreign
military adventurism,” Cato scholars have published a number of articles
critical of Bush’s policy toward Iraq.
Chronology of US Policy Towards Iraq 2000
Posted by the United States Information Service (USIS), this chronology
includes many references to sanctions, but with a marked US government
perspective.
Citizens Concerned
for the People of Iraq (CCPI)
Introduction to speeches, points of view and links on the Iraq sanctions
regime.
FAS: Iraq Crisis Page
Federation of American Scientists provides a large and diverse US
resource on the Iraq Crisis - including background information, an
archive of news articles, details of each operation, and links to
government sites and anti-war organizations.
The Future of a Post-Saddam Iraq: A Blueprint for American Involvement
The right-wing Heritage Foundation has put together a package of
proposals for how to impose order in Iraq after the war and how to use
military force to secure vital US interests.
The
Gulf/2000 Project: Iraq Page
Colombia University has put together a comprehensive site with links to
what they have identified as the most informative and reliable sources
of information about Iraq.
House of Commons Select Committee (UK)
The British Parliamentary Committee on International Development takes a
look at whether the sanctions on Iraq are hitting the right people.
Iraq Action Coalition
This site protesting sanctions has a variety of articles and analysis.
Includes a page of
articles on
Denis Halliday, who resigned his UN post in protest of the sanctions.
Iraq Daily
Collects news articles concerning Iraq and sanctions.
Iraq
Resource Information Site
Detailed information about Iraq, and articles and discussion about
sanctions.
Life and Death
in Iraq (1999)
Seattle Post-Intelligencer's special report on Iraq provides news,
a historical perspective, analysis, and portraits of Iraqi people and
daily life in Iraq.
Middle East
Research and Information Project (MERIP)
Posts analytical articles concerning Iraq and other Middle Eastern
countries.
Save the Children-UK
Committed to creating a better world for children, this is one of the
UK's leading organizations in this area. Very active in Iraq issues.
The Impact on International Law of a Decade of Measures Against Iraq
The University of Michigan and the European Journal of International
Law have held their own conference on Iraq in May 2001. The European
Journal of International Law will publish the proceedings by 2002.
Paul Colon
, United Nations Sanctions Management: A Case Study of the Iraq
Sanctions Committee, 1990-1994, Procedural Aspects of International
Law Institute Publications, Washington, 2000
Paul Colon, who worked with the 661 Committee, describes the work of
this Committee and other sanctions committees and raises legal questions
regarding sanctions.
The
Washington Institute for Near East Policy
An influential, conservative pro-Israel think tank with many ties to the
Bush administration, WINEP has published papers favoring US war on Iraq.
See also the book on a post-Saddam Iraq political order.
Fairness & Accuracy In
Reporting
FAIR, a US media watch group, offers well-documented criticism of media
bias and censorship.
Institute for Public
Accuracy
The Institute for Public Accuracy works to introduce alternative idea
into the mass media and promotes the inclusion of outlooks that usually
are disregarded.
Center For War, Peace
And The News Media
This NYU-based organization investigates the role of the media in the
dynamics of war, peace, and conflict.
MediaLens
Media Lens is a UK-based media-watch project, which offers authoritative
criticism of mainstream media bias and censorship, as well as providing
in-depth analysis, quotes, media contact details and other resources.
Timeline Iraq
The Guardian briefly chronicles the history of Iraq since Saddam
Hussein became president in July 1979.
Federation of American Scentists: Iraq Crisis Page
Includes information on previous military campaigns, such as Desert
Storm in 1991 and Desert Fox in 1998.
People Come First - Protect Human Rights
Recent news and observations on the Iraqi crisis provided by Amnesty
International.
Lawyers
Against the War
LAW opposes the illegal use of force against Afghanistan and other
countries and supports the use of national and international law to
settle disputes, prosecute offenders and protect rights.
The Lawyers'
Committee on Nuclear Policy
A nonprofit educational association using national and international law
to promote peace and disarmament.
US Bombing Watch
When was the last time the US bombed Iraq? This site reports daily on
US-UK attacks on Iraq since 2000, mostly in “patrolling” the unilateral
No-Fly Zones.
FAS: Iraq Crisis Page
Includes information on previous US military campaigns, such as Desert
Storm in 1991 and Desert Fox in 1998.
The
Gulf/2000 Project: Iraq Page
Colombia University has put together a comprehensive site with links to
what they have identified as the most informative and reliable sources
of information about Iraq.
The National
Security Archive
This website offers a library and archive of declassified U.S. documents
obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, a public interest law
firm defending and expanding public access to government information
through the FOIA, and an indexer and publisher of documents in books,
microfiche, and electronic formats.
Why We Oppose War with Iraq
On this site, FOR (Fellowship of Reconciliation) lists many devastating
consequences of a potential war against Iraq.